


rainbows

by juvenileDREAMS



Series: Run Away With Me Universe [3]
Category: TXT (Korea Band)
Genre: A bit of Technology Infused Theory, Alternate Universe - Run Away (Music Video), Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Another split-part, I'll work on Huening's side soon, M/M, Open Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22881994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juvenileDREAMS/pseuds/juvenileDREAMS
Summary: Soobin thought he had lost him forever.
Relationships: Choi Soobin/Huening Kai
Series: Run Away With Me Universe [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1543999
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	rainbows

It began, strangely enough, with death. Or perhaps not so strange, for even if death was one kind of end, it spawned myriad other roads for those left behind to follow. To mourn, to remember and perhaps to forget, and then pick up and just... continue.

Many long and dark nights, Soobin had wondered what he would do should life be cruel enough to take away the one thing that made it all bearable for him. The answer was not slow in coming: well, of course, he would follow. And he would be at peace with the decision, if not happy with it. Some nights, when Kai remained awake, curled restlessly in his arms while the others were nowhere to be found, their eyes would meet, and suddenly, his resolve would shake. An eye for an eye, debts incurred, debts paid – it seemed he would never learn.

Death for death.

Kai, for all his claims of being the strongest of them all, was still a human in the end. For all that his words often carried the deep, empty echo of meaningless noise, for all that his hands were stained with blood, for all that his haunted past was shadowed, there was no one, not a single person on this earth that could appreciate life the way Kai did. His appetite for life, for life's experiences, was comparable to the way he inhaled food. Joyously, recklessly; he was movement and noise personified.

It seemed wrong, then, that when at last his time had come, there was no mark or sign to leave behind a trace, a memory of he who had been Kai Huening.

"Just silence. Dead silence," Soobin murmured into the stillness that was the vacuum of his new Kai-free existence. He hated it, the way his words were forced into spaces too big to fill, and by the same token, too painful to leave empty. "You always wanted to go out in a blast... Huening."

There was a slithery whisper as bits of the ceiling gave way and rained onto the broken bones of the building. Soobin ducked around the more unstable areas, digging deeper into the stricken structure. It seemed a lifetime ago – in reality, mere hours – that he had left this place, Kai's cheerful barbs pricking at him, though tempered by fondness. His lover's ghost whispered in his ears, strengthened by memories both good and bad. His eyes followed the telltale signs of bombs, powerful ones that had all but obliterated the makeshift safe house. And for an irrational moment, he wished that Kai had never discovered this magical face, wished they had never ventured out this dungeon or fought the shadowed creatures that had spawned it.

"I can keep us safe," Kai had said with a roguish wink. He had kissed him, and they wrapped themselves in a fierce embrace, their ardor threatening to undo them both. Kai broke away, laughing a little, breathless. "Hey, you. More of that later. I gotta go, it’s my turn to watch."

Soobin remembered watching as he always did, as his lover deftly woke the decaying computers they had found in yet another abandoned lab, his nimble fingers flitting over the keys in incomprehensible patterns. This particular system's audio capacities were crippled, clarity gained in mute lines of brightly illuminated text. Kai had hacked into some innocuous user's account, borrowing his avatar to surf unmolested in the oceans of information coded into the raw forms of data that was the dungeon. He remembered how the concentration in Kai's expression never lessened, even as his eyes slipped far away. Remembered how his fingers slowed and finally stopped their incessant dance upon the computer keys, the data-head's consciousness fully integrated in the datastream. He remembered more intensely how his own fingers brushed against the cool metal surfaces of the cracked phone that was the physical link that connected him to the machine, and how a small spark of jealousy would flare each time Kai remained unresponsive, cradled in the artificial embrace of the computers.

Unresponsive, as shadowy creatures crept up stealthily upon their temporary sanctuary.

Unresponsive, as bombs were assembled all around him in a deadly pattern.

Unresponsive, as those self-same bombs had ignited in a brief inferno of fiery rage and clawed down rotting stone and metal.

It was likely that they never realized that Kai was even there. Not that he would have been spared if he were found. Soobin blinked with surprise as he was returned to the present by a wet sensation on his hand; he had clenched his fist, nails biting into the flesh of his whitened palm until the skin broke. The sting kept him grounded, and he hardened his jaw. He had hoped that Kai's run was over before they came, but the cold dictates of logic negated it. Hindsight was of no use to him – even if he could guess what had gone one before, there was no way to change the outcome. The best he could hope for would be to recover his beautiful boy's remains...

Tears threatened, but he shoved them ruthlessly aside, guilt weighing heavily on him. Survivor's guilt. Kai would have chewed him out for it, even though he would understand. There would be time enough to honor his memory, time enough to grieve.

He reached the computers. The damage here was greatest, sparks of electricity hissing weakly as tiny fires rose and died among the ruins. The chair that housed Kai's body had been smashed by sections of a fallen wall. A burial mound, Soobin thought darkly, even as he raged inwardly at being further denied. But strangely enough, the computer was still operational, the humming of machinery interspersed with little bursts of static. Drawn by the glowing screen, Soobin awkwardly climbed over the rubble and crouched close to the debris-littered keyboard. His fingers brushed the keys, and the ghost of Kai laughed in his ears. He was no genius like Huening Kai, but at least he was able to access remotely the paths his lover had last traveled. To know, perhaps, his last thoughts.

Text scrolled across the screen. And suddenly, fizzed out. Soobin blinked. The data was lost; a chat request flickered in its place.

Automatically, he tapped a key.

" _*crackle*_...bin-hyung _*snap*_..."

His eyes widened. "T-Taehyun? How did you-but you're dead!"

"...time _*static*_ ..._ _not_ _ ning _*hiss*_ ...horrible reception – listen _*cracklehiss*_... important. Do you _*crackle*_ have a disk?"

"Yes."

"... _*hiss*_ good..."

"Insert disk here," a pleasant female voice crackled, a little tray shooting out beside Soobin's foot.

He jumped, his nerves more than a little rattled. The computer whirred furiously.

"...time, Soobin! _*static*_ " Taehyun's voice admonished sharply; it seemed tinier than it should have been, even distorted through computer's apparently functional speakers.

Soobin reacted quickly, placing a small disk into the tray and pushing it back in with a click. The computer seemed to purr; was the machinery vibrating under his fingers? It read his disk and promptly downloaded an incomprehensible jumble of data into it before spitting it back out. The tremors were growing more pronounced – it struck him then; the dungeon was about to give way completely.

"* _hiss_ *...the disk and _*static*_ Get out!"

He hesitated, torn between the alluring call of this unexpected mystery and his screaming sense of self-preservation.

_"...*bzzt*_ Hyuka. The disk, Soobin _! *static*"_

Soobin froze. Then, the ceiling gave a tortured groan and broke loose. Instinct took over as the first loose blocks killed the computer and cut off communication. He grabbed the disk and dashed back outside, his heart in his mouth as the building collapsed into itself, sinking down below the streets. The adrenaline rush tapered off, and he was left panting, unsure of what had happened, the disk clutched tightly in one fist. His shoulder ached; his fingers sought the slight indentation of the tattoo carved into his skin in faded black lines. 943; It had been a while since he had thought of that mark.

"It can’t be true," Soobin muttered, pressing down on the ghostly ache in his shoulder. "I must have heard wrong."

The disk weighed heavily in his other hand. With a sigh, Soobin flicked the switch beside his right ear, activating the small computer that sat over his right eye, the transparent monitor immediately turning the world into skeletal green structures with pulsing centres of heat dancing here and there. His left eye still perceived his surroundings as they were, but Soobin was used to the strange doubled vision. He fed the disk into a slot, listening to the imperceptible whine of the scanner as it checked for viruses before triggering a playback of its contents.

There was a strange ripple; all of a sudden the machine was him was the machine was someone else—

Familiar.

He realized vaguely that he had fallen onto his knees, and that he had fresh scrapes on his palms. His shoulder was aching, aching and he found memories tumbling chaotically into each other, like a data run gone wrong. Information, swirling around him in meaningless code – where was the line between man and machine?

And there, a presence. Familiar. Warm chocolate eyes, long eyelashes, wild laughter and irritation and fondness and—

Loss. Devastating loss.

Lost and found.

"S-Soobin-hyung?"

He opened his eyes.


End file.
